And they CAN be good for you!
"Even a speedy 10-minute nap can have profound effects on our cognition and mood in addition to alleviating afternoon slumps."
FULL Washington Post Story is HERE.
Our state is almost dead last when it comes to ranking the states as best and worst for retirement.
"Worst States
New Jersey is the worst state to retire, driven by its high cost of living and income tax rate of 10.75% for top earners. It lands in the middle of the pack when it comes to the size of its older community (17.7%), its Supplemental Security Income payment ($660), and the availability of arts and recreational facilities (268 per 100,000 older adults).
Apart from New Jersey, No. 45 Massachusetts and No. 49 Kansas were the only non-Southern states to rank in the bottom 10. Massachusetts was brought down by its high costs – it is the least affordable state for seniors in the U.S. – while Kansas had a low quality of life and poor health care.
Meanwhile, the rest of the bottom 10 spanned the Southeast and Southwest: No. 50 Alabama, No. 48 Georgia, No. 47 Oklahoma, No. 46 Mississippi, No. 44 South Carolina, No. 43 Texas and No. 42 Arizona. These states tended to have unhealthy seniors and below-average spending on long-term care. However, they did typically have larger older populations, lower costs of living and among the best weather in the country."
SOURCE: HERE.
Firearms were the leading cause of death for American children and teens ages 1–17, prematurely taking the lives of 2,526 young people in 2022.
I grew my first mustashe when I was in Vietnam. I was 19, and it looked kinda like the one Timothee has grown now.
Get rid of it quickly, Timothee.
"Since 1992, more than 3,600 wildfires in California have been related to power generation, transmission and distribution, according to data from the U.S. Forest Service. Some of the most destructive fires have been traced back to problems with utility poles and power lines."
(Source: HERE)
"There are plenty of things traffic cops first notice about you, but the way you answer the question about your driving speed plays one of the biggest roles in how the rest of the interaction unfolds."
Buelna agrees that this is the ideal response. “The best answer you can give to that question is, ‘I believe I was going the speed limit,'” he says. “The most important word in that sentence is believe because it suggests you were in the speed limit yet leaves open the possibility that you could be wrong. So it shows you were not lying or trying to lie about your speed.”
SOURCE: Here.
NEWSMAX: Why should other states be bailing out California for choosing the wrong people to run their state? TUBERVILLE: We shouldn't be ... they don't deserve anything to be honest with you unless they show us they're gonna make some changes.
“If you go to California, you run into a lot of Republicans, a lot of good people, and I hate it for them,” the senator continued, “But they are just overwhelmed by these inner-city woke policies with the people that vote for them.
Tuberville said he does not object to some federal funds being earmarked to help California, on one condition.
“I don’t mind sending them some money, but unless they show that they’re gonna change their ways and get back to building dams and stormwater, doing the maintenance with the brush and the trees – everything that everybody else does in the country, and they refuse to do it – they don’t deserve anything, to be honest with you, unless they show us they’re gonna make some changes,” he said.
Just Wait till Alabama is caught in a weather disaster, Tuberville. Just wait. Those words will come back to haunt you.
A groundbreaking study has identified a significant relationship between indoor temperatures and cognitive performance in older adults, shedding light on how climate change may pose an increased risk to cognitive health.
Key Facts:
Source: Hebrew SeniorLife Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research
From The AP:
No. Under federal law, people convicted of felonies are not allowed to possess firearms.
By law, every person convicted of a felony in New York must provide a DNA sample for the state’s crime databank.
Samples are collected after sentencing, typically when a defendant reports to probation, jail or prison. Samples can also be taken by a court or police official.
It’s a noninvasive process involving a swab along the inside of the cheek. State police analyze the cells and genetic material, creating a profile that is then entered into the databank.
There, technology takes over, performing automatic searches and comparing profiles of people convicted of crimes with profiles of DNA collected at crime scenes. Matches can be used to identify a suspect in an unsolved crime.
New York’s databank contains profiles for more than 720,000 offenders and is connected to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System.
Over the last few years, there have been a number of studies examining the potential health benefits and drawbacks of daily coffee drinking on heart health.
On the positive side, studies published in 2024 found that drinking coffee may help negate some of the harmful health effects of living a sedentary lifestyleTrusted Source and consuming caffeine may help improve vascular health.
Other research in 2024 reported some potential downsides, such as chronically drinking high amounts of caffeine at least five days a week may increase a person’s heart disease risk, and too much coffee may increase a person’s stroke risk.
Scientists have also examined the potential benefits of coffee drinking on non-heart related health issues, such as a study published in December 2024 that found drinking coffee and tea was correlated to lower risk of developing head and neck cancerTrusted Source.
“There is a body of studies on the effects of coffee drinking on human health; however, all these previous studies only test the amount of coffee consumption,” Lu Qi, MD, PhD, HCA Regents Distinguished Chair and professor at the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans explained to Medical News Today. “To date no study has investigated the effects of the time of coffee drinking.”
Qi is the lead author of a new study recently published in the European Heart Journal that for the first time shows the importance of coffee drinking time on health outcomes — both cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality risk — beyond the amount of coffee consumption.
SOURCE: HERE
On January 12, 2023, strong to severe thunderstorms swept across the U.S. Southeast, from Mississippi to Georgia, spawning numerous tornadoes. Central Alabama was particularly hard hit, where destructive storms destroyed homes and caused widespread power outages.
One of the twisters touched down in Dallas County, Alabama, as a strong EF2 tornado. According to the National Weather Service (NWS), this storm tore across the landscape for almost 23 miles (37 kilometers) with wind speeds that peaked at 130 miles per hour. It tracked northeast from near Orrville, continued through downtown Selma, and ended near Burnsville.
The tornado’s path of damage becomes apparent in this animation, which alternates between satellite images captured before and after the storm. The first image was acquired on January 6, 2023, with the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9. The post-storm image was acquired on January 14, 2023, with the OLI on Landsat 8.
The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, in which a prosperous Black neighborhood in Oklahoma was destroyed and up to 300 people were killed, was not committed by an uncontrolled mob but was the result of “a coordinated, military-style attack” by white citizens, the Justice Department said in a report released Friday.
The report, stemming from an investigation announced in September, is the first time that the federal government has given an official, comprehensive account of the events of May 31 and June 1, 1921, in the Tulsa neighborhood of Greenwood. Although it formally concluded that, more than a century later, no person alive could be prosecuted, it underscored the brutality of the atrocities committed.
“The Tulsa Race Massacre stands out as a civil rights crime unique in its magnitude, barbarity, racist hostility and its utter annihilation of a thriving Black community,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement. “In 1921, white Tulsans murdered hundreds of residents of Greenwood, burned their homes and churches, looted their belongings and locked the survivors in internment camps.”
Audra D. S. Burch is a national reporter, based in South Florida and Atlanta, writing about race and identity around the country. More about Audra D. S. Burch
“President Trump is smart, knows the facts and is prepared to take America into our ‘Golden Age.’ It is an honor to continue working with President Trump over these next two years to deliver for Alabamians and Americans alike.”
Kay Ivey
Anita Bryant, a former beauty queen and pop singer of the 1960s whose career led her to become a spokesperson for Florida oranges in the early ‘70s and an evangelical crusader against gay rights later in that decade, died Dec. 16 at age 84, her family announced Thursday.
The latest on damage estimates: AccuWeather estimated on Wednesday that the economic costs would reach up to $57 billion. That’s more than triple the forecaster’s assessment of the wildfires in Hawaii in 2023 ($14 billion to $16 billion), but less than the 2020 West Coast wildfires ($130 billion to $150 billion.)
(Full NY Times story is HERE.)
(Photo from California State Parks)
Update on those OLD apartments on S. Court Street. FINALLY work underway! Here's the story
Federal offices will be closed, regular mail service will be canceled.
President Biden honored him:
“With his compassion and moral clarity, he worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us. He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe,” Biden said. “He was a man of great character and courage, hope and optimism. We will always cherish seeing him and Rosalynn together. The love shared between Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter is the definition of partnership and their humble leadership is the definition of patriotism.”
Federal offices are closed and USPS will close on that day as well. Mail won’t be delivered on Thursday due to the holiday. Service will resume on Friday, Jan. 10.
UPS and FedEX pickup and delivery services and UPS Stores and FedEx Office will be open.
Carter will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. Thursday at 10 a.m. All the living presidents have been invited and Biden will deliver a eulogy. The Carter family then will return to bury the former president at a private hometown funeral at 3:45 p.m. at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga.
The Alabama Educational Television Commission, licensee for the nine Alabama Public Television stations, was established by the Alabama Legislature in 1953. On January 7, 1955, WCIQ on Mount Cheaha began operation as the nation's ninth non-commercial television station.
